whole property of land. There are no nobles or patricians—all are equal by law and by birth. The governors and ſenates, as well as repreſentative aſſemblies, to whom the exerciſe of ſovereignty is committed, are annually choſen. Governments more democratical never exiſted; they are vaſtly more ſo than St. Marino. Yet the annual adminiſtratjon is divided into executive, legiſlative, and judicial powers; and the legiſlature itſelf is divided into monarchical, ariſtocratical, and democratical branches; and an equilibrium has been anxiouſly ſought for in all their deliberations and actions, with infinitely more art, judgment, and ſkill, than appears in this little Italian commonwealth.
The liberty and the honeſty of theſe people is not at all ſurpriſing. In ſo ſmall a ſtate, where every man perſonally knows every other, let the form of government be what it will, it is ſcarcely poſſible that any thing like tyranny or cruelty can take place. A king, or a decemvirate intruſted with the government, would feel the cenſures of the people, and be conſtantly conſcious of the facility of aſſembling the whole, and apprehenſive of an exertion of their ſtrength.
The poverty of this people appears, by the fine of one penny impoſed upon abſence from the arengo;, and by the law, that an ambaſſador ſhould have a ſhilling a day. This however is a ſalary in proportion to the numbers of the people, as thirty guineas a day would be to an ambaſſador from the United States.—It appears alſo, from the phyſician's being obliged to keep a horſe, probably there is not a carriage, nor another ſaddle-horſe, in the commonwealth.
An handful of poor people, living in the ſimpleſt manner, by hard labour, upon the produce
